Banshee Sports is excited and proud to have a guest post this weekend by Jason Schultz of Turn 4 Racing News.
Going to Bristol last August, hugely changed my perspective
of that track and why fans love the Bristol Motor Speedway so much. Bristol
isn’t just a race track, it’s a community. A community of fans and staff who
love racing just as much as the fans do that travel from all over the world to
the World’s Fastest Half Mile. Bristol doesn’t feature your typical track
experience, it’s much more. After going to Bristol, I will forever watch the
races at the track differently in the best way possible. Everyone will return
home to the Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend.
Bristol is not just located in the Tennessee Hills, its
located ON a Tennessee hill. Going to tracks like Daytona you can just walk on
the flat pavement to the track. When you go to Bristol, you have to walk up a
hill to get to the track. Not just a little hill but, a pretty big hill that
has a pretty steep slope. The hill Bristol is on makes that track unique and it
makes the Bristol experience even cooler. What other sporting venues can you
say you had to walk up a hill to actually get to the venue? None come to mind
for me and that makes Bristol one special place.
All NASCAR tracks are special because they usually are in
the coolest towns in the U.S. Bristol, Tennessee (and Virginia) is one of the
nicest and best racing-environments in the country. The people who live in the
town are extremely kind and they love their racing. Walking into a restaurant
along State Street in Bristol made me feel like I was at home. There was no
indication whatsoever that made me feel like a visitor, I felt like one of the
locals. That feeling is one of the best feelings in the world. Bristol made me
feel like I was at home and never before have I felt like that at a race track.
NASCAR fans are the greatest in sports and time and time
again is that statement reiterated. No one in the grandstands at Bristol was a
stranger. Everyone talked with each other and no one was afraid to walk up to
someone and talk racin’. The environment that that creates is unbeatable and
only one place in the world can you find it, at the race track. Bristol is no
different and the fan environment there could even be considered the best in
NASCAR. Getting to talk with everyone about racing makes you feel at home.
Feeling at home was special for me since I was far from home, close to 800 miles
away. Bristol by far brings in the best fans in NASCAR and that creates some
pretty special things in the small-town of Bristol, Tennessee.
Bristol is such a special place and everything about that
track and town makes it that way. After going to Bristol, I will never be able
to watch a race there the same way. While watching the race, I will be thinking
outside the track. Thinking about the amazing town that the track is located in
as well as thinking about all of the incredible memories I made at my home away
from home last August. While NASCAR
returns to the Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend, I will not be there but, my
heart will surely be there and it will relive the most amazing race weekend I
have ever experienced. NASCAR will be going home to Bristol this weekend and
everyone there will surely feel at home due to the amazing job the town of
Bristol does on putting on a great fan experience. The banner Bristol hangs at
the track surely is the most correct thing I have ever read, it reads “Welcome
Home.”
About Jason Schultz: Jason is the founder of Turn 4 Racing News. Jason is 15 years old and hopes to one day cover NASCAR full time. In addition to Turn 4 Racing News, Jason has also written for SpeedwayMedia.com, StartNParkBlog.com, MotorRacingDigest.com, TracksideChatter.com and Fan4Racing. Jason can also be found on Twitter. @Nascar_Jason_
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